Bragging Rights (part 2) - [1 Corinthians 1:26-31]

Did you know self-promotion is always a bad idea? Did you know boasting in self is a grievous sin? Did you know the Bible irregularly punctuates punishment for those who would boast in self? Take your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 12 for our introduction this morning and we'll look at one of the original Muhammad Ali's.

Herod's Pride and Divine Judgment in Acts 12

I am the greatest Muhammad Ali in our day and age celebrated, imitated, promoted but pride goes way back. It can go farther back than Acts chapter 12 but let's take a look at Acts chapter 12 and look at a man who loved to boast in himself.

As you know we've been looking at 1st Corinthians about boasting in the Lord never boasting before the Lord boasting because of the Lord not boasting because we've done something wonderful. And as I was reading my Bible this week I came across Acts chapter 12 and I thought this is exactly what not to do.

Here's a good illustration of the wrong way to go about life. And this is the kind of attitude that left to ourselves we would just engage in. This is the kind of attitude that looking at 1st Corinthians will, by the grace of God, cease and desist from Acts chapter 12, so far James has been killed.

Peter has been attempted, they attempted to kill Peter but they just put him in jail. And now we come to the man who's the culprit and his name is Herod. This is Herod Agrippa I, king of Judea son, grandson of Herod the Great.

Acts chapter 12 verse 20 now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon and they came to him with one accord and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain they asked for peace because their country depended on the king's country for food.

Here is this man who's half Jewish, king Herod Agrippa I and he always tried to get on the good side of the Jews and there's some people far away that depend on Herod for food and there's been some kind of scuffle and they now come and they want to make peace with Herod because they want more food.

These people up in Tyre and Sidon want an audience with the king and so they go through the king's special envoy that Chamberlain Blastus and they want to have peace. There's some kind of economic blockade, it's crippling the people up in Tyre and Sidon and so they persuade him with money, with words, with everything we don't know.

And Herod thought, well while you're here we have this festival that happens every five years. Why don't you come and take a look at me while I demonstrate my greatness. Verse 21. On an appointed day, Herod put on his royal robes took a seat upon the throne and delivered an oration to them.

You can just almost see Herod here's these people coming up begging for food and he's kind of fluffing his plume and his feathers and he's showing how great he is. Now come and watch me for a while. Josephus is an unbelieving Jewish historian who said that this was a feast in honor of Herod's patron the Roman emperor Claudius held every five years.

And Josephus says that at daybreak Herod walks out into this big amphitheater purposely, for what reason? Josephus says after the completion of the third year of his reign over the whole of Judea Agrippa came to the city of Caesarea.

Here he celebrated spectacles in honor of Caesar on the second day of the spectacles clad in a garment woven completely of silver so that its texture was indeed wondrous. He clad out in daybreak. He strolled out.

So the sun comes out. You see Herod with all the silver. What an amazing sight that must have been. Herod thought. Josephus says there the silver illumined by the touch of the first rays of the sun was wondrously radiant and by its glitter inspired fear and awe in those who gazed intently upon it.

Verse 22. You know it did. And the people were shouting the voice of a God and not a man. I don't think that was loud enough. The voice of a God and not a man. The voice of a God. It was over and over repeating this is a God.

The God is with us. Josephus says that they started shouting out. May you be propitious to us. And if we have here to fear you as a man yet henceforth we agree that you are more than mortal in your being.

What should the king have done. He should have done what others had done. I'm just a man. Don't worship me. Josephus says he did not reject their flattery. Now occasionally in the Bible God uses an angel for judgment.

Occasionally He uses an angel for public execution. He's used angels to kill 185 ,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. And hear this God who's jealous for His own glory. Rightfully. So I'm sure glad we sang that last song.

By the way Charlie not unto us. And here is the man who says forget it. Let's turn it around unto me. I receive the glory. I'm the king. I have the grain. I'm the wonderful God. Verse 23. Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down.

Divine judgment. Josephus said. Shortly thereafter he looked up and saw an owl perched on a rope over his head at once. Recognizing this as a harbinger of his woes he felt a stab of pain in his heart.

He was also gripped in his stomach by an ache that he felt everywhere at once. And that was intense from the start. Why did the Lord strike him down? What does the text say? Acts 12 .23. Because he did not give God the what?

Glory. I'm God. Move over. It's as if he was saying you know here comes the fourth person of the Trinity so much different than two chapters before. Don't look there. But on the following day they entered Caesarea.

Cornelius was expecting them and they had called together as relatives and close friends. When Peter entered Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped Peter. But Peter lifted him up saying stand up.

I too am a man. That is exactly what Herod should have done. He didn't give God the glory. He was struck down by an angel. And then could it get worse? Look at verse 23. If you're a young man here sitting here today you're never going to forget this as long as you live.

And he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. He's eaten by worms lived five more days and died. Calvin said Herod's body reeked because of decay so that he was nothing more than a living carcass the angel of the Lord.

There's other people in church history Antiochus Epiphanes and 2nd Maccabees. It says that he was a tyrant and he persecuted the Jews. And so the ungodly man's body swarmed with worms. And while he was still living in anguish and pain his flesh rotted away.

And because of his stench the whole army felt revulsion at his decay. If the bakers felt revulsion that'd be one thing but the whole army I'm God struck him down. Dr. Morton says the phrase eaten of worms in Greek is skolat bratas.

The root word skolax means a specific head structure of the tapeworm. Since the word skolex is applied to the head of tapeworms. Herod's death was almost certainly due to the rupture of a cyst formed by a tapeworm.

There were several kinds of tapeworms but one of the most common ones found in sheep growing countries is the dog tapeworm. The heaviest infections come from areas where sheep and cattle are raised. Sheep and cattle serve as intermediate hosts.

The doctor says for the parasite the dog eats infected meat. The man gets the eggs from the dog usually by contamination of hair. The disease is characterized by the formation of cysts generally on the right lobe of the liver.

These may extend down into the abdominal cavity. The rupture of a cyst like this may release as many as two million skolices. The developing worms inside the cyst are usually called skolices because the anterior region constitutes the major part of the development of the stage.

When the cyst ruptures the entrance of the cellular debris along with the skolices cause sudden death. Welcome to Bethlehem Bible Church. At the beginning of the chapter James killed. Peter put in prison.

Herod on display. But what happens at the end of the chapter. Look at the next verse. Acts chapter 12 verse 24. But the word of God increased and multiplied. James is in heaven. Peter is out of jail. Herod is dead.

And the word goes forth. When I read that story I say to myself God forbid that I would boast in anything or anyone but the cross of Christ and my Savior Christ Jesus. And we live in a culture that promotes self-boasting to the degree that I thought it's good once in a while to just put a picture before our eyes where we say you know the wages of self-boasting is skolick's death.

It's not about us and it never has been. So let's go to 1st Corinthians. As we've seen in the last week God does things strange ways. He saves people with a strange cross and He actually saves strange people.

I think Herod would have been better off to sing Isaac Watt's song. Not to my name thou only just and true not to my worthless name as glory do thy power and grace, thy truth and justice. Claim immortal honors to thy sovereign name.

Boasting Only in the Lord

That's exactly what Paul wanted to have happen to the church of Corinth. They were getting into this party kind of factionalism. And they were saying you know let's follow this guy let's boast about my teacher my pastor, my Barnabas, my Paul.

Paul says it's all about giving glory to God and God alone. As I said last week to start off the message. We are born boasters. We like to boast. We're good at boasting. But we need to put our boasting to the right object, Christ Jesus with the right motives so that He might increase and that we might decrease before we get into the message today.

Just a quick background on the book of 1st Corinthians. Paul is writing to these carnal Corinthians to correct their behavior. So you say well pastor why did you pick this book. Is it good for our congregation.

Yes in the sense that I think we're far from it. Even by the way I think I can say this now in the last week. Thank you for loving the people at Bethlehem Bible Church. Thank you for going out of your way in sacrificial love.

All kinds of behind the scenes things are going on. And in front of everyone as well. We've had visiting. When Scott walked in we thought he had a heart attack. People visiting Blake at the hospital. Even the lady I get the email this week.

You're from Nebraska. We're from Nebraska. There's a lady in Boston at Mass General. She doesn't know anyone. She's 18. She's had this massive surgery. Do you think some people could visit then have people from the church visiting.

How wonderful is that. So I say thank you for that. I don't think we're Corinth. But you know what I never want to be Corinth. This is good preventative maintenance. Where you say here's what the Lord says.

Let's run far from these kind of carnal Corinthians and their attitudes. So Paul says boast in other people. No boast in yourself. No boast in being the biggest and the best and the strongest and the richest.

No he says the boasting should be in God. And look at what God does. Let's look at verses 18 through 25. God says the wisdom of the world wants to save people. And only the message of Christ Jesus can save people.

It's counter intuitive to Jewish and Greek expectations. And not only that not just how God saves but who God saves. Verses 26 through 31. I have to tell you right now that God usually saves nobody. He doesn't save the beautiful people.

That's just what God does. So let me give you three deliberations this morning. Three considerations designed to make you conclude that God alone must receive all the glory and the boasting to just dive in to show you how I came up with this proposition.

Verse 29 so that no man may boast before God. Verse 31. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. You don't boast before God. You boast in God. The preposition means a world of difference. God doesn't care what wisdom of the world says or does or thinks.

He has His own way to do things. And He despises those who glorify themselves slighting God ignoring God refusing to acknowledge God. And left to ourselves. We'd be that kind of person too. But we've been saved.

We've been redeemed. We know the gospel. And now we see God's word. Consideration number one. If you consider God's choice of people you'll never boast in those people. We saw this just briefly last week.

I repent for preaching only a 30 minute sermon. I'll never do it again. Somebody came up and said what's the longest you've ever preached? I said it was a 90 minute sermon. Because I asked the pastor how long do you preach?

And he said 90 minutes. I said well how long do you want me to preach? He said 90 minutes. He said at 45 minutes. This will date me especially you young folks. He said at 45 minutes you look at the guy in the sound booth and go like this.

I said look at the guy in the sound booth and go like this. Yeah what's this mean? This means flip the tape over. It's a 90 minute tape. So there you go. I had two more minutes. It was probably a 92 minute tape.

Last week we saw that Paul is trying to say Corinthian church member. You have a pretty humble origin. You have a pretty humble origin. Look what he says for consider your calling brethren that there were not many wise according to the flesh.

The world's perspective didn't say wow those are movers and shakers. Not many mighty not many noble. God uses people like the church of Corinth for his work to show his greatness because they're weak.

God uses people like us for his work because we're weak. And then he gets the glory when the good things happen. And the church of Corinth needed to be reminded of this very thing. It would be good for us if we just considered that as well.

That word consider means to contemplate or meditate. When's the last time you just sat and thought. Do you know I have received everything in my life. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 7. What do I have that I haven't received.

That I haven't received from God. I should be very humble. What were we like when we were called. Paul says I want to defy the logic of the world. The world picks differently. I want to destroy the world's logic.

They pick differently. Whoever wants to be judged by the world's standards. Anyway you probably heard this before. But I love the story of Voltaire the French philosopher agnostic. And he basically said within 50 years people will forget Christianity.

He hated Jesus Christ and he did everything he could to stop Jesus Christ. But the very year that he thought Christianity should be dead the British Museum purchased a Bible manuscript from Russia for 500 ,000 dollars while Voltaire books were being sold in stalls in Paris for 8 cents each.

But that's not the best part. 50 years after this prediction the Geneva Bible Society was running off thousands of Bibles on presses that had been set up in Voltaire's former home in Geneva. Of course they're going to look at things differently.

And of course there are a few people in Corinth that were somebodies. And in church history there are a few somebodies Crispus and Sosthenes rulers of the synagogue. Erastus the chancellor of the city of Corinth.

But there are not many. Not many higher ups. Not many upper echelon status people. Not many as MacArthur says mucky mucks. Well there's a few. But there's not many. Number two. The second consideration that was just review.

Number two if you consider God's choice as sovereign you will never boast in people. If you consider God's choice as sovereign you will never boast in people. Now first he says think about your humble origins.

Now he's going to give a theological statement. And this theological statement has the same design as the cross. And that is to make you think that's not how the world does it and God gets all the glory.

Now for those of you that don't like this following language it's in the Bible. I don't know what to tell you. And you'll see three times in this verse verse 27 and verse 28 God has chosen God is sovereign.

And he chooses. God by definition chooses verse 27. Look at these three times where God chooses. This is not salvation. This is God choosing this kind of person. We're not talking about some kind of election.

We're talking about the general decree of God's sovereignty. He just chooses these kind of people. Verse 27. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world.

And the despised. God has chosen the things that are not that he might nullify the things that are Corinth. You're not mighty. You're not wise. You're not strong. You're not noble. Nor did you just stumble into this relationship with Jesus.

One day I was walking around and I was in the temple temple prostitution was going on. And the next minute I thought oh by chance by luck by fortuitous fortune. I'm now following Jesus. God has chosen he didn't stumble into anything great.

God chose them to hear it. He has a purpose for that. Why? Because if he picks the great people the church grows. Everybody goes. What? The great people grew the church. And if he picks the losers the nothings and the church grows.

And the word like in Acts 12 multiplies. Everyone says God is great. James is dead. Peter is in jail. And the word increases. Look at the first. God has chosen. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

To shame the wise. Now by the way if you read this like I first read it to shame the wise to make them feel guilty kind of the pangs of subjective guilt. No this is eternal disgrace eternal shame that one day on judgment day there will be plenty of shame.

And that's what he's talking about. Look at the second one. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong. That's his plan. Pick the low. Pick the despised. Pick the weak.

Pick the sinful and the base things of the world. The low born low birth despicable people he chooses. God has chosen the things that are not. This is the wildest one. The non-existent. Alright here we go.

This word means the nothings. God has chosen the nothings of the world. How's your self esteem doing? The nothings. He chooses the nothings. I think forget seeker sensitive church services. We're going to start.

There's something brand new around here. It's called the nothing service. If you're a nobody please come boy. They're going to be lined up down 110. Aren't they for that? He chooses the empty set people.

He chooses the null people. And of course think about what Paul's doing. The Corinthians glorify men. Oh this is this is Socrates. This is Barnabas. This is Plato. This is Paul. We'll follow all them.

And Paul says the inspired word of Paul of God through Paul. They're nobodies. I did some study when a man of rank among the Hindus speaks of low caste persons. He calls them in Hindi those who are not.

They're not scholars and Brahmins. They're not even merchants or workers. They're the lowest on the rung of the caste system in India. They're untouchables. That's the idea here. God picks the people who aren't even in the caste system in India.

You want to know the wildest thing? Here's your interesting point of the day to emphasize this. Paul doesn't even use personal pronouns. He uses a neuter. He doesn't even call them people. You see what's going on here?

Look at verse 27. Things things things. Three times in verse 27 and two times in verse 28 things things. He chooses its it's like having people in your home and they're servants. And you call them the help.

No personal pronoun. It's like when you see a bunch of people killed people say that that's the body count. So little value. They're not even individuals. Why does he do this? That he might nullify or render inoperative the things that are.

So we're going to boast in the right kind of person. The God man. John Newton knew it. Listen to this. Young Christians think themselves little growing Christians think themselves nothing. Full grown Christians think themselves less than nothing.

That's first Corinthians. So if something happens nobody goes wow. It was my pastor James Boyce. It was my pastor R .C. Sproul. It was all these things. No it was God and God alone. By the way. That's why I.

Alright let's just be frank just between us. Turn the tape off. I'll go for hyperbole and then I'll back up self esteem doctrine that's being promoted today is satanic. It's sinful. That's not a hyperbole.

It's horrible. Feel good about yourself. Promote yourself. I found a few just horrible illustrations of this in the last ten years that takes the boasting away from God and puts it on a creature. By the way a finite creature.

By the way a sinful creature. Whitney Houston's song the greatest love of all has a line. Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all. How'd that work out for her? I'm sorry you can't take that off the tape.

It doesn't work out by the way in a real note if you receive worship do God and God alone. It is a rare person that can accept that without going haywire. Show me a celebrity that receives self worship from eight years old.

And I'll show you somebody who's in drug rehab and suicide and everything else. Peter McWilliams, author of Love 101. I mean this stuff just oozes. I just want to just to love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

Who else is more qualified to love you than you. Who else knows what you want precisely when you want it and is always around to supply it. Now Paul would take that person by the throat and say have you ever heard of a Skolex?

Melody Beatty author of Codependent No More has a chapter entitled Have a Love Affair with Yourself. Don't you see how strange this is? By just looking at one verse verse 29 we're not to boast before God.

And looking at one other verse the positive side we're to boast in Jesus Christ. Boast in the cross, Paul says in Galatians chapter 6. Doesn't all this kind of just fade into where it should be? And that is the lunatic asylum for people who want to feel good about themselves.

I've got to get my esteem up. No, your esteem needs to go down. Because when you go down the humble God exalts. And those who exalt themselves what does God do? He humbles them. When President Bush went into Iraq the first time one man said in a California newspaper that Saddam Hussein had problems and his major problem was that of lack of self esteem.

William Carey knew 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And here's his tombstone. The great missionary William Carey born August 17, 1761 died June 1834. A wretched, poor and helpless worm on thy kind arms. I fall.

Self esteem is a different religion. Self esteem is sinful. There should be no esteeming self. Philippians chapter 2 says you should esteem. What? Who? Others more than yourselves. You don't need self esteem.

Low self esteem will not lead to any serious problem in life. You should not build self esteem in your kids. And the Bible says show me the last days and I'll show you a day where difficult times come where people will be at the top of the list.

Lovers of themselves don't say something bad to your kids because you might emotionally bruise them. One person said regarding this whole self esteem issue the Christian church is the major culprit. Doing the wrong things about self esteem stirred up within deep feelings of guilt in people referring to people as miserable sinners.

When Lee Strobel says Madonna's got a problem and it's a lack of self esteem. I don't know what to do. You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And the second is you should love your neighbor as your self.

There's no three commandments there. Love God, love your neighbor. Because you love yourself as much as I love myself, that's how I'm going to love my neighbor. That's exactly right. It's not I've got to learn to love myself before I can learn to love my neighbor.

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but he emptied himself taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross. Friends, don't ever forget it. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Spurgeon even knew it a century ago.

Poverty of spirit is an absence of self esteem. The world today says Romans chapter 7. Wonderful man that I am. Paul says wretched man that I am. I hate the doctrine of self esteem because it destroys evangelism.

If people think they're good well then what do they need the gospel for? Let me get all my needs met. And then I think of when Jesus said it is not those who are healthy who need a physician but those who are sick.

I did not come to call the righteous but sinners. How about these words to those who want their self esteem. Jesus said he who loves his life what? Loses it. And he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.

That's why I say it sounds like a different religion. If anyone wishes to come after me Luke 9 let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me. Whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it. That tax gatherer in Luke chapter 18 beating his breast saying God be merciful to me the sinner.

Now I'm not trying to say you ought to say to your kids you know when they make a basket and look over at you at the basketball game you're a wretched sinner. You don't do anything right. I don't think.

If you're in sales you walk up and say would you like to buy this Xerox machine. And I'm really a wretched sinner. You can if you want though if you replace kind of self love with self hate even you're still focusing on self.

Brombeck said whatever our worth may be whatever our capacities we may have whatever may be accomplished through them. As we recognize that everything of worth finds its ultimate source in God and depends on him for life and meaning and fruitfulness.

The appropriate response is not self esteem but adoration of the God who is the source of all. That is why the wisest man who ever lived Solomon said it is not good to eat much honey. Nor is it glory to search out one's own glory.

We don't even want to think about ourselves. We want to be other oriented. That's the idea. Like John the Baptist you say yeah. But Jesus died for me. That proves my self worth. How many times do you hear that?

Well God don't make no junk. I always hear people say it that way. He don't dine for no junk. Don Manzett has a good illustration. Listen what he says. A recent television newscast reported the arraignment of a serial killer who had killed nine people.

The judge set his bail at five million dollars. Nine people dead. Five million dollars. Would we use the same sort of reasoning to conclude that this man should feel good about himself and regard himself as a very valuable human being.

Since the judge set his bail so high he's worth five million dollars to society. And here it is. The five million dollar bail obviously does not reflect the value of the murderer but the severity of his crime.

Similarly the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross is not a statement of our worth but indicates the depth of our sin and guilt before God. And here in 1 Corinthians Paul basically says this when you preach the cross and it saves people like this like them and like us.

People stand back and they can scratch their head all they want and say human strength did not build that wisdom did not build that money did not build that ingenuity did not build that IQ did not build that Jesus Christ is building the local church.

If you look at verse 29 in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 here is the purpose. Here is the result. When God chooses a strange way to save through the cross and strange people to save us. What is his ultimate intention.

Verse 29 that no man should boast before God. That boasting is gone. Glorying in self is gone. Paul had to remind the church of Corinth that a lot. Verse 21 of chapter 3 let no one boast in men. 2 Corinthians 10 let he who boasts boast in the Lord.

2 Corinthians 11 make sure you boast the right way. And look at this passage here in verse 29 I love it that no one should boast in his presence. You know what that is before his face. It's like if you say you know I built this church and you rush up into the presence of God and you get right up close to him in heaven and say I built Bethlehem Bible Church.

Let no one boast before him in God's face. No pastor, no congregation, no group no denomination, no religion, no person, no class no boasting. Churches shouldn't boast in their numbers assets, buildings, cash, pastors, education community service, diversity, programs, growth or hatred of self esteem.

No boasting. I have to tell you when I go overseas I think I've told you this story before. If anybody ever asks me how many people do you pastor. How big is your church. I just I can't stand it. And sometimes pastors ask me the question how big is your church.

So I just lie I just say 3 ,000 and I don't even smile or anything. I just say 3 ,000. And you know what they start doing. Wow I better listen to you. I'm going to have your autograph. Did you write any books.

You can just see the credibility level grows. And then I think well I can't let this go on too long. So I'll say I don't know couple hundred, three hundred. I used to go look at that book every single week when we were growing ten years ago and thinking yeah we're growing.

And then I thought that's so stupid. God is causing the growth. And I'm just doing what acting stupid is what I'm doing. I don't contribute anything. I'm just a mouth person. I thought you know I never people show me the numbers now.

But I never want to go. Look Tom could you go get that and come show that to me 3 ,000. And I always use the same illustration all the time. I use Dan Rathbun's father who's blind and has been for 30 some years.

I don't know how many years he's been blind. So when you meet Pastor Rathbun over in Lowell how big is your church. And what if he said well 70 or 80. You can't teach me anything. It's nothing. Numbers mean nothing.

Faithfulness means everything. And God's after. Even if the numbers increase then that's all the Lord's sovereign doing. Anyway we have to know how to be boasting. Oh we're growing. We've got to get a bigger building.

If God wants to do a work then we boast in the Lord. Look what God does. Abendroth tries to run them out and they still come because they want the word of God. Let's boast in God. Can you imagine standing before God in heaven and telling God how good you are and how you need a high five and a little knuckle.

Kind of explosion. Because you kind of work together. Well by the way that is why I'm so anti-church growth in terms of human manipulating church growth. How do you get people to come. Well give the visitors a free oil change.

If you're a visitor today. Sorry. We'll give you maybe a few cookies on the way out and a handshake. Just this kind of manipulation to kind of grow the church. I don't want the church to grow unless it's growth given by God.

Do you? If the Lord could shrink us down to 40 or grow us to 4 ,000. But I don't want to change the way we do things. Because then if we change the way and tweak it then people will go. Yep, Mike, Dave, Pradeep and Steve are pretty smart.